After 16 years at Sacred Heart, Father Joe retires

On June 18, 2007, Joseph Staudt arrived in Cutchogue to begin his new role as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish. Later this month, after leading his congregation for 16 years, he will retire and begin a new phase in his life.

Interviews with parishioners show that he has left a very deep imprint on them, that his sermons focusing on God’s love of everyone, and on forgiveness and social justice, were well-received, as was his attention to bringing Spanish-speaking members of the parish community to the church. 

In conversations leading up to last Sunday’s retirement party at American Legion Post 803 in Southold, “Father Joe,” as he is called, talked about what he expects as his years as a busy parish pastor come to an end.

“I will back up in various parishes when a priest is away,” he said over a celebratory dinner a week ago at the Cutchogue home of a congregation member. “It will be different, for sure, and not what I have been doing as a pastor. I will continue to work, but it will be a new role.”

In 2019, The Suffolk Times named Father Joe its 2019 Person of the Year, calling him a “true friend to all” who came to a troubled parish, helped heal the wounds of the priest abuse scandal and, as a monsignor, welcomed congregants who had left the church back to the fold. 

In his spare time — which was limited since he was both pastor of Sacred Heart and administrator of Our Lady of Ostrabrama R.C. Church in Cutchogue — he taught English as a Second Language to students who met with him on the second floor of Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library.

Father Joe speaks Spanish, as does his replacement, Father Michael Bartholomew, who has been the pastor at Immaculate Conception R.C. Church in Westhampton Beach and will start later this month at Sacred Heart Parish.

“Father Mike will continue what we have been doing to encourage Spanish speakers to come to Mass and bring their families,” Father Joe said at the recent dinner in Mattituck.

In the 2019 story that named Father Joe Person of the Year, he talked about being the pastor at a parish in Commack and being reassigned to Cutchogue. He said he was filled with trepidation to start over in a new place and feared he would not be up to the task.

“I had been in Commack for 10 years,” he said at the time. “A lot had been turned around. Now I was being moved. I was told they were having problems out there. I felt inadequate.”

Historically, Sacred Heart Parish had two churches, Sacred Heart in Cutchogue and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Mattituck. A number of priests who had served in the parish had been identified in the 2002 Suffolk County grand jury report on priest sex abuse. 

In so many critical ways, Father Joe was tasked with restoring trust in a parish where trust had been violated. By all measures, he succeeded, with homilies that focused on God’s love, on forgiveness and redemption. 

He was not loath to talk about his own problems and difficulties within his own family — issues familiar to so many who sat in the pews listening to his Sunday homilies.

A familiar theme was summed up by a guest at the recent Cutchogue dinner party, who said: : “Father Joe, you will be missed. We wish you weren’t leaving us.”